WIPO DEU2024-0022 · decided 23 September 2024
Trove Brands, LLC, Runway Blue, LLC, Trove Brands Ireland Limited v. Jan Radomski
The parties
- Complainant
- Trove Brands, LLC, Runway Blue, LLC, Trove Brands Ireland Limited
- Respondent
- Jan Radomski
What did the panel find on each element?
| Element | Finding |
|---|---|
| Identical or confusingly similar to a protected name | The panel found blenderbottle.eu identical to the BLENDERBOTTLE trademark, and held that the domain possibly being registered before the trademark was not relevant to this element. |
| Registered without rights or legitimate interest | The panel found Trove Brands had not proved a lack of legitimate interest, because the domain was acquired by an affiliate of its European distribution partner with no prohibition in place. |
| Or registered or used in bad faith | The panel found the domain was not registered in bad faith, but that its current use for pay-per-click links after the distribution arrangements ended was use in bad faith. |
Why does Trove Brands matter for a complaint today?
Runway Blue LLC owns the BLENDERBOTTLE EU trademark, registered on January 14, 2014, and Trove Brands is its exclusive licensee. For years blenderbottle.eu was run from the German end of Trove Brands' European distribution, with Trove Brands' agreement. Jan Radomski, based in Germany, has held it in his own name since January 30, 2017. After Trove Brands ended its distribution agreement on July 20, 2023, the domain showed pay-per-click links. The panel, Andrew D. S. Lothian, found the domain was acquired during an informal distribution arrangement that had no ban on holding it. So Trove Brands could not show it was registered without rights or legitimate interest, and it was not registered in bad faith either. Trove Brands still won. Paragraph B(11)(d)(1)(iii) of the .eu ADR Rules asks whether a domain is being used in bad faith, and the pay-per-click use took unfair advantage of the BLENDERBOTTLE trademark. A UDRP complainant must prove both bad faith registration and bad faith use, so a good faith registration normally ends a UDRP case. For a business owner, put domain ownership in writing with every distributor. The formal agreement bound a different company, and the holder was not a party to it.
Who decided the case?
A single panelist, Andrew D. S. Lothian, decided the case on 23 September 2024.
Read the decision
The full text is published by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. We summarise it here; the decision itself is the authority.
Summarised by Gergana Dimitrova. Checked against the published decision on 23 October 2026.
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